Lisa Hendrix

As you know (or should, as much as I’ve been talking about it <g>), IMMORTAL OUTLAW is a finalist for the 2009 RT Reviewers Choice Award for “Best Historical Vampire/Werewolf/Shapeshifter Romance.”  Other finalists in that category include THE TREASURE KEEPER (Shana Abé), LORD OF LEGENDS (Susan Krinard), SO STILL THE NIGHT (Kim Lenox), and NIGHT AFTER NIGHT (Kathryn Smith). I feel honored to be in the company of such grand, talented women.

I’d love to list all the other categories and nominees, but it would take me all day to type them up. Fortunately, there’s a pdf:  RIGHT HERE.  Pay especial attention to the Career Achievement Award nominees; they’re some of the best and brightest in the romance game.

Congratulations to all my fellow nominees.

Catching up on a few random items:

If an e-reader comes your way for Christmas, Hannukah, or Kwanzaa, please keep in mind that both IMMORTAL WARRIOR and IMMORTAL OUTLAW are available as Kindle Editions on Amazon.com, and in other digital formats at Barnes & Noble.com (Please note: I am NOT the Lisa Hendrix Simmons whose self-published books turn up under my name at B&N. I’m not making any comment good or bad about her books, I’m just not her.)

Also, a reminder: my Virtual Booksigning is still in full swing. If you get or give  IMMORTAL WARRIOR and/or IMMORTAL OUTLAW, you can have them autographed long distance by sending for my custom  bookplates.  Follow the link to find out how. (You’ll also get bookmarks and a recipe for a delicious herb bread.) If you get them as e-books, you can have a bookplate anyway or I’ll be glad to sign a bookmark with my sparkly bronze marker. You still get the recipe. <g>

I’ve been having a lot of fun on Twitter and Facebook recently. Too much, in fact, so I’m going to have to be good for the next few weeks while I finish writing IMMORTAL CHAMPION. But I’d love it if you’d go ahead and follow/fan me so you’ll be ready when the party starts again after I finish.

Finally, I have a new guest post up at 1st Turning Point, a relatively new but excellent website for writers. After you’re done here, pop on over to read The World’s Cheapest Promo, then explore 1st Turning Point’s other articles, listed under Resources in their masthead.

More later. Jingle-jingle.

A magical lovers’ bower hidden with the hollow formed by a cluster of young oaks grown together around the mother stump—sounds like a lovely figment of my imagination, doesn’t it?

But it isn’t.  Well, mostly not, anyway.

In the tiny surviving remnant of Sherwood Forest stands a tree as old as the Robin Hood legend itself, the Major Oak. At approximately 800-1000 years of age, and with a girth of some 33 feet around a hollow center, it has long been believed to be the tree in which Robin and all his Merry Men hid from the Sheriff of Nottingham.  The Major Oak has an odd, twisted shape that some say comes from it being a fusion of several trees. The interior of the tree isn’t as open as I described, but the tree is 700+ years older, too; the trees would be much thicker now. The one thing I totally fudged was the floor inside the hollow. In reality, it’s  lumpy and hard and would be a pretty uncomfortable place to make love. Fortunately, I write fiction.

The image to the left is a drawing of the oak made in approximately 1790 by Major Hayman Rooke, after whom the oak was named (before Maj. Rooke came along, it was called the Cockpen Oak because it was used to hold caged fighting cocks).  There’s a great collection of photos of the oak  HERE, including one with the support struts removed digitally, so you can see its true grandeur

And thanks to the BBC, you can enjoy a real treat:  a 360º tour of the inside of the Major Oak!   (While you’re there, check out the “Hide in Sherwood Forest” link just below the tour to see an example of the thick ferns that Marian and Robin hid in at the very beginning of Chaper 1.)

QUESTION:  HAVE YOU EVER FOUND A MAGICAL PLACE IN THE WOODS? SHARE A LITTLE PIECE OF THE MAGIC IN THE COMMENTS BELOW.

You’ve seen him in his beast form.

Now have a peek at my human inspiration for Gunnar the Red:

That’s English actor Steven Waddington.  You may know him as Maj. Duncan Heyward in LAST OF THE MOHICANS, or, more recently, as Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham, from THE TUDORS.  If you want more, more, more, of the delicious Steven, there are a whole herd of  pix of him at Flixster.

And now you know why I’m smiling so much while I write IMMORTAL CHAMPION…

Sudwell, known today as Southwell, lies about 14 miles northeast of Nottingham City and 3 miles northwest of the River Trent. It’s an ancient place, apparently dating back at least to the Roman era; luxurious villa was found under the churchyard in the late 50s, a mural from which is on display in the Minster, and other traces of Roman roads and brickwork have been found in the area.

An early church was founded at Sudwell around 628 AD, when Paulinus of York (left) visited the area after baptizing a number of converts in the nearby Trent. Land for a larger church was given to the Archbishop of York (Oskytel) in 956, and construction began in 1108.  The next year, then Archbishop Thomas I  asked each parish in Nottinghamshire to contribute to the building of a new Mother church, The Church of St. Mary Southwell.

Thus began the Southwell Gate, held yearly at Whitsuntide (7th Sunday after Easter). As Marian explains to Steinarr in Chapter 10, in those days, the Mayor of Nottingham and a representative from each parish would carry their pence to the Minster in a grand procession. Dressed in their finest robes, the officials met at the Old Market Square in Nottingham City and proceeded on foot and horseback the 14 miles to the north porch of the Minster, where the funds were received by the chapter clerk. Clergy and lay folk would accompany the procession, combining a pilgrimage with an excursion to Southwell’s famous Whitsun Fair. The term Gate comes from the old Norse word gata, meaning street or way—which explains why Steinarr Read the rest of this entry »

Amidst all the illness of the last two months, I had three pieces of good news:

First, of course, was the contract for the next two books.

Second, came word that IMMORTAL OUTLAW had been selected for Amazon’s Top 10 Best in Romance for 2009.  Yep, really. It’s right there on the top of the Browse Romance page, alongside books by writers like Susan Wiggs, Nalini Singh, and Sheila Roberts. This is an Editors Choice award, so it makes me especially happy. Not that it wouldn’t be nice to make the bestseller list next time <g>.

And third, I just found out last week that IMMORTAL OUTLAW is a finalist for the 2009 RT Bookreviews Reviewers Choice Award for “Best Historical Vampire/Werewolf/Shapeshifter Romance.” Counting the Top Pick rating from RT and Steinarr’s K.I.S.S. Award, that makes four significant honors for my Outlaw. There’s clearly something about that Robin Hood legend…

Anyway, that’s the news for now. Tomorrow, we’ll be back on the trail of Marian and Steinarr, stopping at the Southwell Minster.

I admit it: I’ve been a total flake about posting. I had a legitimate excuse, at least at first. I returned home from the Emerald City conference (back in the first part of October) to find my husband and Child2 both in the grip of H1N1.  I shifted into nurse mode and ignored everything else. They started to get better, then both got pneumonia.

Then I got sick.  Just for a variation, my H1N1 decided to turn into bronchitis, which took two, count ‘em two, rounds of antibiotics to knock down (the second one was a big gun—one of the drugs of choice for anthrax). Even after the drugs worked, I spent the next six weeks alternately sleeping and coughing like a coal miner. When I finally got back on my feet, I told myself I needed to ignore the blog and start writing.

Because, you see, while I was up north way back at the first of October, before all the sickness, Igot the call—Berkley picked up the next two Immortal Brotherhood books!  Yep, Gunnar and Torvald are getting their turns.  I was actually in a parking lot in Tacoma, getting ready to attend the biggest readers group meeting I’ve ever seen, when my agent called my cell. It was a blast getting to go in and tell the ladies the news.

IMMORTAL CHAMPION (Gunnar’s story) will be out in January 2011. IMMORTAL WHATSIT (no, that’s not the actual title, I just haven’t thought of the right one yet) in October 2011.

Yeah, 2011. Not 2010. My fault, entirely. (I warned you I’m not a fast writer). That’s a heck of a wait between books, but I already have plans to keep you happy by Read the rest of this entry »

It’s excerpt month over at the Rose City Romance Writers blog, and to celebrate, I contributed a never-before-posted bit of Chapter 2. While you’re over there, take a few moments to read all the other excerpts. There are lots of talented ladies in the Portland chapter of RWA.

And have a good Sunday.  (I’m going shoe shopping with Child2!)

From the time I started IMMORTAL OUTLAW, I intended to take you all on a tour of the locations  in the book and reveal the fact and fiction in the story.  However, I didn’t want to post too much too soon and end up with spoilers.

The book has been out about 6 weeks now, so I think it’s safe to begin our trek. First though, a bit about a question I’ve gotten over and over during the past couple of months:

Why Robin Hood?

Well, why not? It’s a story that has been around for at least 600 years, so it clearly resonates: A good man outlawed for either an unfortunate mistake (accidentally killing a forester) or for standing up to tyranny (refusing to do homage to a usurper trying to steal the throne) depending on the version you’re reading, making his way in the wilds, gathering a band of like-minded men around him to redress the wrongs of society by robbing only the rich to aid the poorest around them. Bows and arrows, horses, great chase scenes through the woods, comic relief, and a love for the ages. Great stuff, even if it’s likely based on the romanticized story of a tax-evading scofflaw.

But really why are these two:

That’s Bernadette O’Farrell as Marion and Richard Green as  Robin from The Adventures of Robin Hood, an ITV series rebroadcast in the US on CBS. I grew up on these two (and Patricia Driscoll, who took over the role of Marion, as they spelled it, in seasons 3 and 4). [Photo used without permission.]

I watched TARH in syndicated re-runs, and I loved it from the first. I fantasized about being Marian, who in the series was brave and bold and every bit as good with a bow as Robin. No victimized Olivia de Haviland here. She was a tough cookie (and even tougher after pixie-like Driscoll took over), and she fought the bad guys alongside the men. This was probably because the producer was Hannah Weinstein, one tough cookie herself (she hired blacklisted writers like Ring Lardner to write episodes under psuedonyms, which explains the solid, socially conscious storylines).

As a bonus, bits of the series were shot on location in the meadow at Runnymede where the English barons—including a descendant of the real Ivo from Immortal Warrior—forced King John to sign the Magna Carta. The production values on TARH were pretty high for the time (it was shot on 35 mm film), so even now, some 50+ years later, the images are crisp. You can find the DVDs at Amazon (all four seasons/143 episodes for under $25).

So, yeah, Robin Hood, and not for the first time. My first published romance, Hostage Heart, was totally Robin Hood gone cowboy, a straightforward western version of the legend complete with robber-cattle-barons and unsavory sheriffs—unlike this one, which is my fantasy about how such a story might have come about if our boy Ari had been around.

I hope you’ll follow along as we retrace Steinarr and Marian’s zig-zag route through Nottinghamshire. You’ll be able to see their path on the interactive map available from my Extras page or at GoogleMaps. Invite a few friends to come along. It’s going to be an interesting ride.

So, what was your favorite version of Robin Hood (book, movie, or tv)? Did you ever dream of going outlaw for the sake of justice? Were you a fan of Little John, Alan-a-Dale, or Will Scarlet?

UP NEXT: The Road to Maltby

Ah, the joys of summer. Lazy days, hammocks under the maple tree,  corn on the cob, poison ivy…

Wait. I live in southern Oregon. We have poison oak, not poison ivy. Everyone knows that. Well, everyone except the bird that apparently flew in with a gut full of poison ivy seeds and planted them in the pachysandra.

A while back, I noticed we had some new plant growing in the front side yard, between the mulberry and the cherry. It was pretty and green, and other than a vague idea that I needed to figure out what it was, I didn’t think much of it at the time. Then I got that debilitating crick in my neck I mentioned and wasn’t doing much of anything, particularly gardening, so the pretty green plant grew and spread, looking quite lovely in the shade and filling in a bare patch in the ground cover that needed something anyway.

Then my neck got better and I went out to take a closer look. Leaves of three. Oh, crap. The leaves weren’t shiny, like I remember from summers in Kansas, but I knew.  I came in and fired up the laptop just to check.

We’ve got poison ivy, a patch about 10′ x 15′ that bleeds into the pachysandra and the lilies of the valley (also poisonous, btw, but not in quite the same way). I scooted off to buy Tecnu and Marie’s Poison Oak Soap, and then hubby and I geared up for the attack. But the woody root is well buried in the pachysandra and intertwined with those of the mulberry, and it quickly became obvious we were never going to succeed that way. So hubby headed off to the armory (garden store) while I scrubbed the tools with Technu. (Here’s a great site with info on poison ivy, how to recognize it, and what to do about it.)

Thank goodness Steinarr and Marian (IMMORTAL OUTLAW) didn’t have to worry about poison ivy (imagine that scene under the tree at the collier’s camp if they discovered they’d been sitting in the wrong plant!), It’s not native to England,  but unfortunately, modern English practitioners of love al fresco have to look before they lie. The plant is so beautiful in the autumn that some fool brought some in to enhance his garden. Somebody, presumably, immune (about 1 in 4 is, although that can change with continued exposure).

The bird that made us a gift of the seeds was likely a downy woodpecker, who loves the creamy white berries. I’ve seen way more woodpeckers in the neighborhood than usual this year, including one I think was a downy. But it could have been anything, because the only beasts NOT immune to poison ivy are primates — like us. So there you go.

Anyway, chemical warfare has been launched. Leaves are beginning to wilt (not to include the mulberry or cherry, we hope). We’ll still have to grub up the roots this fall while wearing exposure suits, but at least we’ll know they’re dead when we do. And then we’ll have to replant. Something pretty and green…and non-toxic.

We’ve avoided rashes so far, but I bet some of you haven’t.  Care to share your itchy story? Got pix?